The average black IQ in the United States is 85. That’s the highest average black IQ in the world because American blacks, on average, are 25% white.

The average latino IQ in the US is 89, the average white IQ is 100, the average oriental IQ is 105 and the average Ashkenazi IQ is about 108.

IQ correlates with educational attainment, income, law abidingness and household wealth. For instance, for blacks and whites with the same incomes, whites will have higher credit scores and more wealth, just as orientals and whites with the same incomes, orientals will have higher credit scores and more wealth.

I never see the MSM asking, “Why don’t white middle-class families enjoy the same level of economic security as their oriental counterparts?”

frican Americans for decades flocked to Prince George’s County to be part of a phenomenon that has been rare in American history: a community that grew more upscale as it became more black.

The county became a national symbol of the American Dream with a black twist. Families moved into expansive new homes, with rolling lawns, nearby golf courses and, most of all, neighbors who looked like them. In the early 2000s, home prices soared — some well beyond $1 million — allowing many African Americans to build the kind of wealth their elders could only imagine.

DASHED DREAMS: This is the first part in a series looking at the plight of the black middle class, particularly in Maryland’s Prince George’s County, the nation’s highest-income majority-black county.
Part 2: Half of the loans on newly constructed homes in one Prince George’s County subdivision during the housing boom in 2006 and 2007 wound up in foreclosure.
Part 3: The plight of the Boateng family, who face more than $1 million in debt, shows how some of the people swallowed up by the easy credit era have yet to reemerge.
But today, the nation’s highest-income majority-black county stands out for a different reason — its residents have lost far more wealth than families in neighboring, majority-white suburbs. And while every one of these surrounding counties is enjoying a strong rebound in housing prices and their economies, Prince George’s is lagging far behind, and local economists say a full recovery appears unlikely anytime soon.

The same reversal of fortune is playing out across the country as black families who worked painstakingly to climb into the middle class are seeing their financial foundation for future generations collapse. Although African Americans have made once-unthinkable political and social gains since the civil rights era, the severe and continuing damage wrought by the downturn — an entire generation of wealth was wiped out — has raised a vexing question: Why don’t black middle-class families enjoy the same level of economic security as their white counterparts?

The Washington Post article is the same type of dreary nonsense you expect from the MSM but the commenters are much sharper:

* Do you wish to understand the depressed property values in Prince George’s County?

Here’s Violent Crimes by County for 2013:

https://data.maryland.gov/Public-Safety/Violent-Cr…

And here’s some recent information about high school graduation rates:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/one-…

So, if the county could just cut its rates of violent crime down to something approaching the Maryland state average . . . and if it could boost its educational achievement to something approaching the state average, then property values would soar. But, of course, then it wouldn’t be anything like PG County.

* Oh the horror. It has to be …….dare I say it…..RACISM! BS! How about these good folks try something novel in this day and age……LIVE WITHIN YOUR MEANS AND SAVE MONEY.

* Many Asian immigrants showed up equally impoverished, yet they have the highest test scores, attend the best schools, and have great paying jobs. Blaming the distant past is faulty logic at best. It has a lot more to do with discipline, work ethic, and willingness to succeed in school.

* Why hasn’t the thing kept down the Irish in this country?

* Many white people come from families with no money and manage to save, invest and get ahead through thrift and hard work. GI Bill is and always has been color blind so stop with that lie. The folks in this story are making over six figures annually and somehow they are in financial trouble. Living beyond your means knows no color barriers and is an equal opportunity path to failure.

* This isn’t a case of predatory lending, or destruction of wealth. It’s a case of living beyond your means. Plain and simple. Did they really need a single family 3,600 sf house with granite countertops, tiled floors, two NEW cars?

The Washington Post perpetually paints black folks as victims, but in the Bryant’s case this clearly a case of making bad financial decisions and a clear cut case of not living within your means.

* Yes, there are “racial differences”, but so what? Nobody held a gun to any of these people’s heads and forced them to take out a loan. How long do you keep living your lives doing stupid stuff and blaming others for it?

* Reporters are financial illiterates, but stories about black families living beyond their means, buying new cars and going on expensive vacations doesn’t assuage their “white guilt” by blaming it on decades of “racism.” No racist white KKK member told them to buy a 3,600 sf house, or two new cars, or take expensive vacations, or live in a neighborhood that has high crime rates and lower property values. Yes, the Bryants got more for their money in PG county, but like Stockton and Vallejo in California, they were boom and bust regions. Can’t blame racism for that.

* WTF did you need private school for? We bought during that time and the real estate agents were trying to convince us that we could “afford” a lot more house. I told them to stuff it. We knew darn well what we could afford and were buying below that just in case the market crashed – which it did. Predatory lending is bunk – no one put a gun to these folks heads and forced them to borrow over 1/2 million bucks.

* Why would banks take the risk? One riot and all that money goes up in flames. The risk outweighs the possible gain. Where whites typically don’t riot and burn their own neighborhoods, the risk doesn’t outweigh the possible gain. Its simple banking.

* My sister-in-law was a loan officer at a bank during the housing boom in the 2000s. She approached me about refinancing to an ‘interest only’ loan. When I pointed out I wanted to keep paying on the principal and getting rid of payments at some point she reassured me the rising equity of my house would cover the loan and I could have more money in my pocket now. I thought this was a terrible idea and said so. She countered my thinking was “old thinking” and “everyone” was going to interest only loans now. My grandparents came to this country legally and were discriminated against socially and in employment opportunities because they were ‘foreigners’ and couldn’t speak a word of English. When she said “old thinking” I think she was referring to my grandparents from the Old Country. What I want to know is, do I have an EEOC case against my sister-in-law and her bank for trying to prey on me?

* Many states have online land records, these are public records.
This isn’t rocket science. And whoever had the assignment to fact check this story should be fired.

* Lets see-Blacks voted 99% for Obama in 2 presidential elections.Now after 6 years with a black President they are much worse off-what is the explanation.

* The Post did a real bad thing by not fact checking this story. Some simple review of the land records, available online shows a very different story. The Bryants kept their condo in Hyattsville when they bought this house. They stripped the equity out of that property, as well on the same day they refinanced their home in February of 2005. They then refinanced the primary home again in 2007.

Between 2005 and 2007, it appears that their primary residence mortgage balance went from $368k to 540k, as they refinanced twice, each time taking more money out. That’s a 150k taken out in two years on the primary and a 72k on the rental. The condo was sold in 2006 for $219k. Just on a basic review, it looks like they had over $250k in monies taken out from the properties and sale in just a few years and spent it all.

Do your homework, Post writers. This is pathetic that you didn’t back check this to make your claims of predatory lending.

* I have lived in PG County for 50 years. There is a big hole in this article. Shame on the Post for allowing it into print.

There is chronic corruption and incompetent public service in PG County. Our leaders are the most corrupt in the area with the possible exception of DC. Our schools are among the worst. Our police and fire departments have one scandal after another. We are a running joke among the other jurisdictions in the area.

No one with a brain would move into this county. I only stay due to inertia. My house is paid for and my children are all grown and gone. They live nowhere near PG County.

* This is not a real estate story, or a discrimination story, or a “predatory lending” story. It is a story of black pathology (see below). Who, in god’s name, would really want to buy a home in Prince George’s County, except blacks? Thus, prices fall.

From Wikipedia: “Prince George’s County accounted for 20% of murders in the state of Maryland from 1985 to 2006. … the county had a 23.1% increase in total crime for the years of 2000 to 2004. Between the years of 1984 to 2004, Prince George’s had a 62.8% increase in total crime. However, as of 2009, crime had generally declined in the county and the number of homicides declined from 151 in 2005 to 99 in 2009.”

* The article basically implies that blacks as a group are dumber than whites.

If it didn’t imply this, it would instead focus on how people (regardless of race) who can’t manage their money really got hurt by the predatory lending scams and the subsequent recession. And how too many Americans are just stupid in general.

Anybody who falls for these scams doesn’t have the maturity or intelligence to be responsible for these decisions. It’s hard to feel sorry for people who are having a hard time due to their myriad poor choices.

* “The county became a national symbol of the American Dream with a black twist. Families moved into expansive new homes, with rolling lawns, nearby golf courses and, most of all, neighbors who looked like them.”

Can you imagine the Washington Post writing that about white families like its a good thing?

* Anyone making an $800/month car payment on a BMW or Escalade has NO right complaining about how they can’t make their mortgage. Once again, certain people cry “racism” to mask their own poor decision-making skills.

* So when gentrification takes place in DC and housing values skyrocket the natives get mad because they’re priced and pushed out. To the east of the city where there is less gentrification, the locals are outraged that they haven’t enjoyed capital appreciation like the rest of the region and they CAN’T move out. Other than pointing out the obvious, what do you want? Pity?

* Back in 2005 banks were being attacked by Barney Frank and the rest of the liberal Democrat mob for being “racist” and discriminating against black folks in lending practices. Therefore, a lot of pressure was placed on banks to make loans to the same black folks, even though they would risk default if the economy went south or interest rates went up. Once again, the lying liberal media distorts the facts in order to peddle their ludicrous agenda, instead of holding people responsible for their own actions.

* And guess what? Attorney General Eric Holder is already pressuring banks to lend more to minorities again. Later on when many of these loans fail, Dems will claim that the “disparate impact” proves that there was racist predatory lending.

* First lesson in life, if a solicitor calls you, hang up, whatever he’s selling is not to your advantage.
Second lesson, don’t live beyond your means.
Third, save for a rainy day.

* HOWEVER, when I came upon this qualifier tucked in halfway through the article (“The Post was unable to determine from the documents several factors that are likely to influence the types of loans borrowers are able to secure, including credit history, income and assets”), I couldn’t help but view the article’s claims as somewhat suspect. Why devote so much ink to this topic when such critical factors as credit history, income and assets were not analyzed?

* Hey, here’s a novel idea WaPo! How about doing an expose on all of the people who were not greedy, status-chasing idiots? How about doing a story on the rest of us, who were prudent, intelligent, and more than able to read the financial details and ramifications of the loan documents we were about to sign? How about doing a story about all of the prudent, hard working citizens who will be paying for all the morons who got bailed out, whether via reduced pension investment returns or paying off the public credit card?

How about not labeling the greedy idiotic behavior of EVERY SINGLE FAMILY in these stories as black victimhood?

* “She also liked that it was still largely black.”
How’s that not racist?

* IF a white person stated they liked to live in a community that was still largely white there would be an outrage.

* The Post should start a new section of the paper titled “Mugged by Reality”. These stories belong in that section and not front page above the fold.

Steve Sailer: From the Washington Post, a story of an African immigrant family who have racked up $1.3 million in debt, even while not paying their mortgage for over six years.

Is plight exactly the right word to describe somebody who has not had to pay to live in a new 3,292 square foot house for the last six years? And who owns a second home?

Research has suggested that the subprime bubble looked in part like an Affinity Group Scam. A lot of the worst loans were made to minorities by co-ethnics who had gotten into the mortgage business as part of the financial world’s enthusiastic Drive for Diversity.

… Hispanics (mostly immigrants, presumably) had worse foreclosure rates in Prince George’s County than did blacks overall. From a study of foreclosures in Prince George’s County by Katrin B. Anacker, James H. Carr, and Archana Pradhan:

Everybody knows that a great way to select people is through a random lottery. That’s why Harvard lets in 500 applicants per year at random. Goldman Sachs annually puts all the resumes they receive in a spinning drum and hires the first 200 they grab. Bill Belichick always makes one of his annual NFL draft picks by throwing darts at a list of all the college football players in America.

COMMENTS TO STEVE SAILER:

* Amazing how the financial industry took advantage of these hard-working immigrants who just wanted a better life.

* I have to say I find this article quite enlightening. I hope the Post readers make it all the way through to the end. Plenty of American 21st century problems are illustrated brilliantly.

She has two bachelor degrees and a masters. And 90k in student debt and no job.

They rent out a home and the tenant won’t pay. And it takes MONTHS and legal bills to get rid of a bad tenant.

They accumulate mountains of debt. This means they’re able to make payments and are eligible for bigger mountains of debt. This sounds like Greece.

As soon as they can, they bring in family members from the old country. No waiting list for mom!

They get to live for free in a big, new home because the bank is too slow to kick them out. Will they owe back taxes on all that unearned income?

What did I miss?

* For a couple of rubes from nowhere, they sure took the corporate American slickers for a joyride. And the idiot “journalist” is feeling sorry for them as exemplifying something wrong with us white-boys.

* Saw this story earlier. Read a bit of it, until I just couldn’t take it anymore, and stopped in disgust. Wanted to know how many of these Blacks were government employees, since I think without affirmative action and government employment — also often the result of affirmative action — there would be practically no black middle class. And on top of that, one of my least favorite themes from the ‘mortgage meltdown’ — deadbeats living for free, and for a long time, in nice houses, whereas a renter would be thrown out on the street pronto, along with his belongings, by local law enforcement.

Here’s a photo of the reporter. Surprise!

* As a Ghanaian American, whose family lives in DC area, the Boateng’s story is not unusual sadly. The community is more tight knit and more susceptible to keeping up with Joneses than others I suppose. I know of 2 relatives and several family friends that ended up foreclosed upon in Prince Williams County.

There is an unseemly fondness for big, brand new homes among West Africans. During the run up, relatives were scoffing at my mother for not moving from her 1960s built home to a brand new one. She bought her home in the mid 90s and wasn’t interested in moving. Ironically she is the only one in the family to live in PG yet she actually has equity.

I’ve read all the articles in the series. Today the WaPo removed all comments from the previous stories and disallowed any for this new story. I guess they didn’t like the general tenor of the comments that sneered at the notion that these people are victims.

PG simply doesn’t have the fundamentals to support high home prices. The schools are rated the 2nd worse in the state of MD. Crime is comparatively higher and there are few major non-government employers.

However if one is realistic you can get a good deal. In my mother’s neighborhood of Camp Springs I’ve noticed more non-Black residents moving in. Homes go for about $200-250K the area is a 5 minute drive to the Beltway and Metro and 30 minutes to DC. You figure the money you save on housing you could easily put the kids in private school.

* Sounds like these scam artists have made out like bandits here. By my reckoning they’ve conned over a million dollars and they’re still going at it. Ultimately native-born, middle class taxpayers will be footing the bill. I’d be willing to chip in a buck or two to get these freeloaders on a plane back to Ghana.

* Given their occupations (him being an IT consultant) and educational achievements, I don’t think we’re dealing with people afflicted with extremely low IQs. We’re dealing with total and complete ignorance about the way money works. Also, it looks like the Boatengs hang out exclusively with fellow financial morons from their church community.
I know a few people like that in black immigrant communities. A lot of those people I know are legitimately educated but they come from both a country and a social class where no one knew anything at all about money.

I’m guessing that black african immigrants are more affected by the foreclosure because they’re more likely than african-americans to try to become homeowners by any means necessary.
Also, I can totally picture their pastor and church friends telling them to not worry and to let god take care of everything!

* Most of all, our Dear Rulers had no business importing the Boatengs or any of the other millions of Third Worlders they’ve imported since 1965, to the despoliation of what’s left of what used to be our country and to the corresponding simultaneous massively increasing wealth of their super-rich globalist campaign donors. Why, in the name of all that’s good and decent, do Americans need to have needlessly imported Third Worlders taking American IT and health care system worker jobs?

* The Litvin Law firm mentioned in the article wasn’t just in trouble with the Maryland AG, as mentioned. A quick Google reveals they also got into trouble in Rhode Island and New York for the same thing. Its principal is one Gennady Litvin of Brooklyn. So my guess is that we have a freedom-loving Jackson-Vanek immigrant preying on freedom-loving Ghanian immigration lottery-winning immigrants as they all clamber towards the American dream, which oddly enough has nothing to do with freedom and everything to do with monster-homes. I think there’s a Tom Wolfe novel in here.

* I also note with some interest the importation of Grandma to mind the kids. When they arrived in the USA the Boatengs had two children and gave birth to another within the next decade. It doesn’t seem to say how many they have now.

I’ve wondered for a while now about whether white families are equipped to keep up(in terms of reproduction) with non-whites who come to traditionally white nations but import their own child-rearing habits. Steve likes to periodically contrast the different marriage and family-formation customs between historical England and and China, with the former creating a culture that encouraged reproductive restraint to some extent, and the latter culture having a system that allowed a select group of men to be a fecund as humanly possible.

A can’t speak for the American experience, but in Canada, a lot of Asian(eat south, west or wherever) immigrants also import their family structures to their new homes as well. Many households in these immigrant communities are not nuclear. They often have three generations under one roof, perhaps with multiple siblings and their families, all guided by the patriarch. Thus individualism is discouraged. That’s why white politicians fall all over each other to win these non-white votes, because it’s generally a more efficient use of their time and resources.

Going back to the main point about higher reproduction, Canada’s long-lax family reunification rules have made it easy for recent immigrants to import non-productive older family members whose prospects for work are minimal (Eg. Grandma Boateng), but can easily mind children while the parents work, allowing them to save money and possibly have more children. It is also not uncommon among immigrant Chinese in the west to host older mothers and fathers, who shuttle between adult children to help whenever a new grandchild is born. In general an Asian or African wife probably wouldn’t see much out of the ordinary of her mother-in-law came to live with them and help raise the children. She might not like the idea, but it wouldn’t be outside the realm of her cultural experience.

In contrast, the individualistic western family model means that a parent generally does not cohabit with an adult offspring’s family unless they are incapable of caring for themselves, so if they are to aid their adult offspring in child-rearing(Eg babysit so the parents save on childcare), they must live nearby, which is becoming less and less frequent, especially as more and more eastern Canadian whites move west for better job prospects. So basically even with educated, law abiding types like the Boatengs, I think that by importing them, we’re basically importing people who are culturally equipped to out-birth us.

Also, if you read the original article, you’ll see that Kofi’s first job when he arrived in the US was as an “IT instructor”. Was this at a community college or as part of some corporate training gig? Either way, I’m sure that the customers, whether teenaged students or companies, felt privileged knowing that in exchange for their money, they would be taught by a man with degree in computer science at the University of Science and Technology in Kumasi.

Finally, Steve, you failed to mention that before construction started on the Albatross-home, the Boateng clan went to the building site and well, this happened:

“We sanctify the grounds with the blood of Jesus,” Kofi said.

* In Chicago in the 1990s I lived next to a 20-story public housing project for the elderly. A large fraction of the residents were East Asians who didn’t speak English. I believe most were imported by their immigrant children as child minders and the like and then turned over to the American taxpayers to house when they were no longer useful in that role.

* Another note on this “case”: I understand the weapon was never found — from the tone of the story, someone must have held a gun to their heads.

* Some simple arithmetic, based on the WaPo excerpts that Steve quotes.

The Boatengs bought their P.G. County home in November 2005, with a $60,000 down payment and two mortgages totaling $554,683.

They refinanced in September 2006, taking out a mortgage for $612,286.

During this time, the WaPo reporter claims their income was about $113,000 ($82,740 (Kofi, IT consultant for a government contractor) plus $30,000 (Comfort, administrative assistant)).

A prudent person with good future-time orientation would estimate their house payment in terms of PITI (principal, interest, taxes, and insurance) over the long term, i.e. not as the initial payments in a balloon vehicle.

There is no simple number for an equity percentage that will allow you to refinance but 20% is usually a good beginning. If your home is worth a million dollars and you have a $800,000 mortgage, you are in the game with a good chance to refinance your mortgage.

A spike in home sales and prices combined with a boom in low- and no-down payment mortgages a few years ago explains why so many new homeowners don’t have enough equity to refinance today. Lack of equity, and especially being “upside down” or “underwater,” is a significant barrier because lenders are naturally loath to lend more than the value of the collateral.

Yet while many homeowners clearly can or can’t refinance, others are uncertain as to whether they have enough equity to do so. Unfortunately, the only way to truly find out whether you’ll qualify is to submit an application and pay a parcel of upfront fees that can amount to hundreds of dollars.

First estimate your home’s value

One good strategy is to discuss your situation with a loan officer or mortgage broker and try to figure out how much your home is worth before you submit a loan application.

“I recommend that people try to get every bit of information they can to get a good accurate estimate before they write that check [because] if [the lender is] collecting an application fee and you are paying for an appraisal and the deal falls apart, that’s a pretty expensive lesson,” Metzler says.

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The world is always trying to take your money and assets away. The world is always trying to take your house away. If you act stupidly, it is easy to lose everything. And these rules apply to the mortgage refinance as well.

With mortgage interest rates near record lows, it seems that everybody who refinances their mortgage is in a better place financially, but this is not always true. Stupid people often screw things up for themselves and their families.

The main reason for refinancing a mortgage is to get dramatically lower interest rates but if the fees you’ll be paying exceed the benefits of the lower interest rates, then you should not refinance. Perhaps you have a substantial prepayment penalty on your mortgage? Perhaps you’ve been lured into a variable rate mortgage that could go up dramatically?

Predatory mortgage lenders often ask the borrower to sign incomplete or blank documents, or exaggerate their income. Not only is this dishonest, it is done to structure the mortgage loan as to promote default. The borrower qualifies for a larger property than they can afford, and when they are unable to make the payments the lender forecloses and takes the home. It is important for the borrower to do the necessary research on mortgage offers in order to help them to recognize dishonest mortgage lenders.

Get Closing Costs Up Front

Until the details of the specific mortgage loan are clear, closing costs are estimated. Because there are different ways to calculate closing cost, it is always best to expect the worst and be happy later. By law, the closing costs have to be disclosed to the borrower within 3 days of making the loan application. The lender should make the disclosure in a timely fashion and be as upfront as possible.

Understand the Reasons for Refinancing

Homeowners often have different reasons for refinancing. Some simply seek to reduce their rate of interest. However, that may not always be to their advantage, as the related fees may end up being more that the gains from the rate reduction. In order to make the best decision, it is important to have an understanding of their reasons. It could be for consolidation of debt, home improvement, or for a major purchase. It could also be for other personal or financial reasons, perhaps taking a loan for cash to purchase a car. Some purchases may be used for deductions on interest payments on the tax return. It is always wise to consult a tax attorney, accountant or financial planner prior to making those decisions.

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A mortgage modification is meant to make a loan payment more affordable for a homeowner at risk of foreclosure or with a loan with high payments and interest. The homeowner and lender come to an agreement to alter the terms of the original mortgage, lowering the monthly payment. The modification may change the repayment length, lower the principal amount and alter the interest rate or type. For example, a borrower with an adjustable-rate loan may get a fixed rate.

In theory, a loan modification shouldn`t hurt the borrower`s credit score, although their score may have already dropped if they were late in their payments by the time they applied for modification. However, some issues in the current mortgage modification system can damage a borrower`s score even further.

Poor Coordination

If the lender`s mortgage modification and foreclosure departments are not working together, the borrower`s score can take a hit. Some lender modification departments instruct borrowers to stop paying prior to applying for a loan alteration in order to prove hardship, one of the qualifications in certain modification packages.

Once the borrower misses payments, however, the foreclosure department in the bank reports it on the borrower`s credit reports. Each time the borrower fails to make a payment, their credit score takes another hit and this will continue until the modification is in place. Payment history accounts for about 35 percent of a borrower`s credit score, according to Bankrate`s official website.

The Modification Itself

Just the act of a mortgage modification may hurt a borrower`s score. Since the borrower is having the original loan terms altered, they are no longer paying as agreed, even though the lender agreed to modify the loan. Their score may continue to take damage until the mortgage is paid off in full.

While the borrower usually can`t have negative items removed, they can ask the lender to report their timely modification payments. Payments made on time help a credit score, but the borrower may have to contact the lender to ensure their payments are being reported properly.

Considerations

Despite its drawbacks, a mortgage modification is still less damaging to the borrower`s credit than a short sale or foreclosure would be and they get to stay in their home. Modification programs usually have strict repayment rules, however, so the borrower can`t miss payments or they risk losing the modified terms.

A borrower stands a better chance of getting approval if they start the modification process before they`re too far behind on the loan. If the loan has already entered foreclosure, for example, the lender may be less willing to work out a deal because money has already been spent on legal fees.

If a borrower can`t afford or qualify for a modification, they may need to consider avenues such as a short sale or bankruptcy. Before filing for bankruptcy, borrowers should get professional advice, as bankruptcy impacts all areas of personal finance. Bankruptcy information websites, includingbankruptcyadvice.co.uk, offer some advice to inform a borrower before they meet an attorney.

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If you fall behind on your mortgage payments and can`t get caught up, you could be on the road to foreclosure. However, there may be options before you get that far, including selling your home in a short sale.

Foreclosure

When you borrow money to buy a home, you have what`s known as a secured loan, because the debt is secured by your home. You are essentially agreeing that if you don`t make your payments as required in the loan contract, the bank can take your home to satisfy the debt.

Most lenders start foreclosure proceedings once you fall at least 90 days behind on your payments. At that point you will receive a notice of default. Once you reach this point, it is very difficult to become caught up. If you cannot get current on your payments, your bank will begin to work toward foreclosing on your property.

How long this process takes depends on where you live. Some states require your lender to file a lawsuit against you, while in other states, your mortgage is held in trust and all the bank has to do is ask the trustee to foreclose. In states where judicial proceedings are required, foreclosures can take up to a year or more. In non-judicial foreclosure states, the process can take as little as six months.

Once the lender has foreclosed, it owns the deed to your home. The lender usually will give you a certain amount of time, such as 30 days, to vacate the property. If you don`t do so voluntarily, the lender can have local law enforcement forcibly remove you and your belongings.

Short sale

A short sale involves selling your home for less than it is worth. If you are faced with foreclosure, one of your options always is to sell your home. However, that can be difficult to do if you owe more on your mortgage than you can get from a sale. In that case, you have to work with your bank and get its approval to sell. Before the bank will consider a short sale, you have to show financial hardship that prevents you from continuing to pay the mortgage, which shouldn`t be that difficult if you are already facing foreclosure.

You can put your home up for sale at any time, but the bank needs to approve any offer that is less than what you owe if you don`t have the financial means to make up the difference. It`s best, therefore, to work with the bank from the start. Short sales can often turn off buyers, because it can take the bank a long time to approve an offer.

Depending on which state you live in, the bank may be able to sue you for the difference between what you owe and what you got for the house, even though it agreed to the short sale. Even if it does forgive the debt, you might be hit with a tax bill for the forgiven debt.

Many people think a short sale is better for your credit score than a foreclosure, but that`s not the case. They are both reported as settlement of a debt and will reduce your score by approximately the same amount. Short sales really only benefit lenders, which tend to come out better financially.

If you are facing foreclosure or a short sale because of medical or credit card debt you have accumulated, National Debt Relief may be able to help you get back on your feet.

London has the distinction of being one of the liveliest cities of the world. It is a hub of activities and hundreds of thousands of people dream of spending their lives in London. As a result, property is scarce in this city and you may have to compete with the wealthiest and the most famous people of the world to acquire a London property.

In 2013, however, there will be some respite in this scenario. Barratt Developments, a leading name in London property market, has obtained two brand sites that plans to offer 1000 new homes to potential buyers. Given below are the reasons why the projects are exciting-

1. The Location of the New Projects

The location of your future home is a significant detail that needs to be just right. You do not want to end up at an obscure locale that makes commuting difficult. Nor do you want a home that with unhygienic neighborhoods. With Barratt Developments’ new projects, you would not have to worry about settling at a horrible location.

The officers-in-charge for these projects confirm that these new homes will be located in the prime areas of Southwark and Surrey Quays, respectively.

2. The Investment

The total estimated value of the project is approximately £400 million. This generous amount would ensure that the inhabitants of these housing projects get the best amenities, and luxuries, which modern living has to offer. For instance, the projected 670 piece of Surrey Quays will house a majority of private homes. In addition to these, a sprawling retail space is also being designed, at the location.

Similarly, the 400 units of the Southwark project would have sufficient parking space and a large number of affordable homes. At this place also, you can also expect some sort of market space to be developed.

3. The Precedence

Barratt Developments is one of the fastest growing homebuilders in London city. They have the experience and the expertise that is necessary for executing top-notch housing projects. Recently, the company was in the news for acquiring a posh site, in Central London. They wish to keep up the good work, and a large number of other developments are also in their cards.

The company is especially known for undertaking projects in the highly sought-after Zone 1, and Zone 2, of London. They are also spread across other regions of the United Kingdoms. It is their London projects, however, which are the hot favorites of all those people, who want to acquire affordable homes in the city.

The scramble for a London home never ceases and since long, prospective Londoners have bemoaned the absence of more estates and properties in this busy city. Although housing developers make a concerted effort to increase the number of London properties every year, they sell like hot cakes the moment they are listed.

With the new projects of Barratts Developments, however, you can expect to get a step closer to your dream London home. Check out this great site to know more about this exciting development, and keep abreast with your dream of a London home.

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2012 was a nightmare for the real estate market in India. With property price dipping, the investors were not keen, but even that did not show any signs of purchase by the buyers. This scenario is likely to change in 2013. There are several reasons for that. One of the main reasons is that the home loan will become cheaper with banks reducing the rates. The other reason is that the investors are trickling in and taking up shelved projects again. Given below are five things in store for the Indian real estate market this year-

Favourable Policies For The Real Estate Market

In 2012 the government finally took a step to draw some policies in favour of the real estate market. They have promised to give it a status of an industry as well. In 2013 you will be able to see a large number of bills being introduced, like the real estate investment trusts (REITs), Land Acquisition Bill and the real estate regulatory bill. These bills will help shape up this sector in a favorable way.

Increase In The Demand For Office Space
In 2013 you will see an increase demand for office space. The demand for such spaces will be in the prime locations, like downtown and the centre of the city. The price of these office spaces will be quite high. There will be a greater demand for rental office space, as the prices are high and there are limited projects like this.

Residential Market Will Become Expensive

This year, experts are saying will likely see the rate of absorption going up drastically. The Real Estate Investment Trusts will allow rental investment. You should know that this is likely to increase the demand for investment in property in important cities. Investment in the home real estate will be more expensive than the last year because the prices of construction materials and gone up and so has the inflation. This will make per square feet more expensive.

Demand For Both Investment And Buying

The reduced SBI home loans have ensured that buyers are ready to invest in new homes; this has made the investors rise up and take action. They are coming up with numerous new projects and with the help of the government’s help are starting on projects that have previously been shelved because of lack of funding or interested buyers.

Prime Cities Will Notice A Scurry For Real Estate Investment

In cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, buyers are rushing to buy property while the price is still low. In Delhi, the per square feet amount has grown up drastically since last year and therefore buyers are keen on purchasing before property prices rise any further. It is similar in the case of Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai.

These are the five things that are in store for 2013. The real estate market is finally turning around and this is proof enough.

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Another government housing program has had to reduce its subsidies. The free market has been constantly under attach by government intervention over the past 20 years but reality wins out.

FHA mortgages are steadily getting more expensive and private sector mortgages may be a better deal. The FHA is running out of money to subsidize mortgages and as a result it must raise its fees and its standards.

Mortgages with no-down payments were all the rage leading up the 2007 crash as particularly young people without the ability to make a substantial down payment and faced with skyrocketing housing costs made desperate deals to buy a home, convinced that home prices were only going to go higher.

And who weakened the standards for mortgage loans? Principally the federal government out of a desire to increase the percentage of Americans who own their own homes.

Kenneth Harney reports: If you want to buy a house with minimal cash by using an FHA-insured mortgage, here’s some sobering news: Because of an ongoing series of fee increases and underwriting tweaks, those mortgages are getting steadily more expensive and may not work for you.

The Federal Housing Administration is the largest source of low-down-payment mortgage money in the country. Its minimum down is just 3.5%, compared with 5% to 20% or more from conventional, non-government sources. For decades, FHA financing has made homeownership possible for first-time buyers with modest incomes and credit history blemishes.

But in the wake of losses tied to bad loans insured during the housing bust years, the FHA has been raising its loan insurance fees and backing more loans to applicants with higher credit scores. With the latest increases, things have gotten to the point where some lenders wonder whether the agency is trying to move away from its traditional customers.

From Pragertopia: “Prager H1: Dennis talks to Glenn Reynolds, professor of law at U. of Tennessee and founder of Instapundit, one of the most read conservative blogs on the Internet. His new short books for Encounter Broadsides are: The Higher Education Bubble and K-12 Implosion.”

Glenn: “Both of them are propped up by a lot of cheap government credit. In the case of the housing bubble, it was mortgages from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and various other federal programs like the Community Reinvestment Act and that led to the price being driven up until we reached the point where people couldn’t service the debt anymore and the bubble burst.”

“Tuitions rose to capture all that federal government money.”

“When you get out of college and you’ve got all that debt, it is debt you can’t get out of (even if you declare bankruptcy).”

“The three year requirement for law school was introduced a hundred years ago as a way to keep out the Jews.”

Dennis: “Why would that keep out the Jews? Because it was too expensive?”

Glenn: “Yeah. At the time, you had a lot of these smart Eastern European immigrants who were used to rabbinical argument and analyzing text but they didn’t have a lot of money so you had rules saying you had to go to law school for two years, and then three, and you couldn’t work…”

“Once people are lawyers, they find these barriers to entry much more conducive…”

REPORT: Brian Tamanaha, a professor of law at Washington University School of Law shines a light on the disaster that has become of law schools. His book titled Failing Law Schools, details the looming crisis that has become the legal profession. I have to give Professor Tamanaha credit. It has to take a lot of courage and integrity to call out his profession on their malpractice.

Starting with the structural aspects of legal education, the author states that at the turn of the 20th century legal education changed focus from an apprenticeship approach to learning the profession to the requirement of a bachelor’s degree and 3 years of law school. This was due to plain old xenophobia/racism. To keep Eastern Europeans, Jews, and other recent immigrant groups out of the legal field, a medieval style guild was created.